“The Human Who Helped the Demon Princess Reclaim Her Kingdom”

The bright lights illuminated the card-making workshop, reflecting off the magical instruments and vessels.

Those tools exuded an ancient aura, as if they had witnessed the glorious rise of many card makers.

At this moment, Lanqi was fully focused on the workbench.

He carefully counted the basic materials, took out a partitioned tray, and picked up some of the needed materials.

He placed them one by one into the compartments of the tray.

Talia frowned slightly unconsciously as she watched his material selection.

What does this guy need so many materials for?

While Talia was puzzled, Lanqi gradually completed his preparations.

Talia, who had been poor for so long, had almost forgotten that she used to be wealthy too.

Lanqi rolled up his shirt sleeves, his face full of anticipation, ready to start practicing making magic cards.

He clumsily began mixing the ground non-attribute magic crystal powder with magic core liquid to make ink, using a measuring device to detect the magical fluctuations during the blending.

Lanqi, who couldn't yet synchronize his own magic power with the ink blending, could only temporarily rely on magical tools for assistance.

"..."

Actually, this wasn't difficult, but it couldn't be learned just by reading books. He needed someone to teach him.

Talia watched Lanqi's novice operations with an expressionless gaze.

However, she had no interest in, nor any need to, guide this human youth who lacked magical talent.

Seeing this, Talia already knew what kind of card Lanqi wanted to make, even without watching further.

Because Lanqi opened the magic scroll he was going to excerpt, extract, and engrave next.

This scroll was clearly the first-level mental spell [Mental Interference].

Compared to magic scrolls that would be discarded after one use, if made into a magic card, this spell could be used repeatedly—

[Mental Interference]

[Category: Spell Card]

[Quality: Blue Rare]

[Level: 1]

[Effect: Only effective on enemies within 3 meters, briefly rendering them unable to act. Mana consumption and duration depend on the mental difference between both parties. Cooldown time 120 seconds.]

In most cases, magic cards made using just this one magic scroll as a base would have more or less the same effect, with at most slight fluctuations in control time.

If the card maker's skill was exquisite, they might even be able to produce a higher-grade [Purple Rare] quality.

Then the effect would become more powerful, or have some additional effects.

Of course.

Even though it was only a first-level spell, its [Blue Rare] quality posed a high challenge for novice card makers.

Being able to not blow up the card, or make a degraded [White Common] quality version would already be good.

Talia couldn't yet comment on this youth's talent, or what kind of card he would make.

But generally, humans with talent would have started learning card making much earlier.

Lanqi's family background was obviously not bad.

If he had talent, he should have been given the best resources to start learning early on.

He wouldn't be fumbling around making cards out of interest only now.

"Tata, do you understand card making?" Lanqi asked suddenly, staring at the scroll in his hand, seemingly feeling Talia's gaze.

For him, having someone to chat with in the workshop seemed not bad.

"..."

Talia didn't respond to him, just indifferently moved her gaze away.

She didn't want to lie about such a small matter, nor did she want this human to know what he didn't need to know.

Lanqi smiled knowingly and stopped trying to talk to Talia.

Just like the Card Makers Association's attitude towards himself, if he was a merchant, he still had decent trading value.

But as a card maker, he showed no value at all.

Come to think of it, the only people who had faith in him so far were the butler Mr. Hans and the maid Miss Floransin at the mansion.

Lanqi thought to himself while continuing to fill the engraving pen with the prepared magic ink.

He couldn't be distracted anymore, because he was about to enter the most crucial step of magic card making—

Rewriting and shaping the magic structure and circuits.

Almost all first-level mental magic had very small-scale mental interference effects, and strong control-type mental magic often needed to be activated at a relatively close distance.

If one wanted to rewrite the effect, it not only required extremely strong magical creation ability but also multiple experiments and improvements. The difficulty was far beyond normal production.

Lanqi concentrated fully, focusing all his mental energy on what was before him.

As the engraving pen in his hand moved slightly, he slowly infused his magic power into each magic circuit.

The magical structure of cards couldn't be drawn by just any magician or magical craftsman who wanted to draw it. It was a process of understanding, creation, and spellcasting coexisting.

Without outstanding talent and thorough understanding, even if one could draw something that looked similar, they couldn't imbue it with the power it should have.

Lanqi held his breath, seeming to enter the moment of greatest challenge.

The biggest trouble with engraving was the circle of dense magical symbols that needed to be engraved on the card. These twisted things that looked like ants crawling around couldn't be recognized clearly without sufficient eyesight, let alone written out.

He frowned as he slowly engraved.

Like an artist painting a beautiful masterpiece.

Each stroke was extremely delicate, yet full of steadiness.

This made even Talia, who was watching from the side, pay a bit more serious attention to Lanqi.

Leaving aside how low-level the card Lanqi was making and how inexperienced he was.

At least in this moment, the aura around Lanqi didn't seem like that of an inexperienced card-making apprentice, but rather a highly skilled master artist!

This went on for dozens of seconds.

Accompanied by the sound of an explosion.

It blew up.

Talia: "..."

In the faintly spreading smoke, she shook her head imperceptibly.

Sure enough, he was a mediocre talent wasting money.

Even though she didn't understand much about human magic script spell engraving, she could roughly see that Lanqi was doing some very confusing operations—

He seemed unsatisfied with just making [Mental Interference], but was trying to excerpt and engrave it while rewriting it into a more complex spell, then directly encapsulate and produce it.

It was like a beginner should first try to learn to walk before mastering running, but Lanqi wanted to skip walking and running to try flying from the start.

Those who would do such a thing.

Were either extremely self-confident geniuses.

Or fools with unrealistic ambitions.

"How did it blow up..." Lanqi looked at the magic card in his hand that had exploded like a firecracker, a bit dumbfounded.

It seemed everything had happened too suddenly, shattering his card-making dream.

Fortunately, the light barrier in the card-making workshop protected him from harm.

The next second, Lanqi quickly ran out of the card-making workshop as if he had thought of something.

"This guy..." Talia frowned and muttered to herself.

Even if the employer was upset and in a bad mood and wanted to leave, he shouldn't abandon her like this in anger.

The thing she hated most was anyone casually leaving her behind.

Just as Talia was about to leave the card-making room with a somewhat displeased expression, Lanqi ran back, rushed to the workbench, and started quickly recording something.

"You're not leaving?" Talia asked.

"No, we're just getting started! I just went to ask the steward to bring me a few more things," Lanqi answered matter-of-factly.

He didn't seem to be discouraged at all. Instead, his eyes sparkled with enthusiasm and anticipation, as if he was filled with endless curiosity about this field of card making.

Talia didn't say anything more and sat back in her original position.

She was very patient. Just sitting here every day could earn her 3 pounds, which she didn't dislike.

She just didn't know how long it would take for this human to give up due to repeated failures.

Soon, the steward brought Lanqi several books and a few materials he hadn't used before.

Lanqi took the books and began to quickly flip through them at the long table, as if fascinated.

He spent the entire afternoon alternating between blowing up cards, recording failure data, and studying.

......

Two whole weeks passed like this.

Every day, Lanqi and Talia would come to this card-making workshop. One would blow up cards, the other would watch, and they would stay for almost the entire day.

But Lanqi still hadn't made a decent [Mental Interference] card.

Talia was still sitting in her chair, gently holding a book, turning the pages unhurriedly, completing her job of protecting her employer.

However, she no longer paid much attention to Lanqi's card-making process, only reading human books to pass the time.

In her view, Lanqi's failure was normal.

Even if beginners trained intensively like Lanqi, disregarding the cost, it usually took repeated failures to make a blue rare quality card.

Lanqi didn't seem to have much talent.

Those with good talent might have made several usable first-level magic cards by now.

There were even geniuses who could directly produce blue rare quality cards as soon as they started card making.

Unlike Lanqi, who had been producing waste for a whole half month.

Along with a faint light surging at the edge of her vision.

Even with her attention on the book in her hand, Talia knew that soon there would be the sound of a magic card bursting.

Because Lanqi had failed at this step countless times already.

However.

As the light grew brighter and then faded, this time there was no sound as usual.

"..."

Talia couldn't help but move her gaze slightly from the book pages.

She saw Lanqi focusing intently, like a craftsman completing the last step of a masterpiece.

And the magic card in his hand began to diffuse a hazy glow.

It seemed to have succeeded, and Lanqi also breathed a sigh of relief.

Finally, a magic card that could be called a finished product was successfully born along with the mist!

Lanqi showed a gratified smile, staring at the card face.

He seemed very satisfied with the quality of this card, and even he as the card maker couldn't help but admire it for a moment.

The card was emitting a purple crystal light.

Even Talia couldn't help but glance at Lanqi.

To produce a purple rare quality card on the first try, without any guidance?

Most card makers often only had hope of making rare quality cards when they went back to make first and second-level cards after reaching fourth or fifth level.

Although Lanqi had indeed used too much time and cost, there were even more exaggerated geniuses among the demon race.

But what surprised Talia was that a human she randomly encountered had such talent...

Sure enough, even fate stood on the side of humans.

A sense of powerlessness inexplicably spread in her heart.

This scene only made her feel that in this human era favored by the gods, the restoration of the demon kingdom seemed like a bubble, out of reach.

"Tata, look at my masterpiece!" Lanqi's cheerful voice made Talia's downcast eyes lift slightly.

Actually, for her.

A first-level purple card wasn't anything rare.

And compared to the materials Lanqi had wasted, the value of this card couldn't even cover a fraction of the loss.

Even if it was a purple quality [Mental Interference], it was ultimately just a relatively low-cost mental magic, not a necessity, and couldn't even be considered a versatile card.

Compared to ranged professions, it would be more likely for melee professions to carry it.

However, while thinking this.

Talia identified the effect of the card in Lanqi's hand and finally frowned.

Because.

She saw that the effect of this improved [Mental Interference] magic was—

[Basic Etiquette]

[Category: Spell Card]

[Quality: Purple Rare]

[Level: 1]

[Effect: Only effective on enemies within 3 meters, causing the target to kneel before you. Mana consumption depends on the mental difference between both parties. Cooldown time 120 seconds.]

[Note: Sir, please don't peek through door cracks, and don't get carried away.]

"...?"

She wondered, aren't these kinds of cards usually for effects like stunning an enemy for half a second after getting close?

Although what Lanqi made had a similar effect... maybe the control time was slightly longer than [Mental Interference].

But...

There were some things she couldn't say.

"Are you selling this card?" After thinking for a moment, Talia finally asked.

This was the first time she had actively spoken to Lanqi.

With the few dozen pounds she had earned from Lanqi so far, it wasn't difficult to buy a lowest-level purple rare quality magic card.

Of course, this was only for ordinary cards.

Lanqi's original spell card didn't exist on the market, so its price couldn't be inferred.

Its value wasn't really about whether it was useful or not.

But rather that others absolutely shouldn't use it.

So it would be better for her to control it herself!

"Ah, no, I'm keeping this one for myself. It's a pretty good life-saving card," Lanqi looked at Talia with slight surprise, seemingly amazed at her appreciation, then smiled and shook his head in refusal.

Talia: "?"

A good life-saving card?

...Are you sure this card can be used to save lives?

Maybe you wouldn't die in a fight originally.

But using this card with its powerful provocation and taunt effect, it's hard to say.

......